200 years ago in 1811, Henry Clay began his first term as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He had a prolific political career, not only serving as Speaker, but also serving several terms in the U.S. Senate.  He also served as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams from 1825 to 1829.

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This weekend on History Bookshelf, Historians David and Jeanne Heidler discusses their book, “Henry Clay: The Essential American.”

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American History TV continues to reair C-SPAN's history series “The Contenders,” which features profiles of key figures who ran for president and lost, but changed political history. This week, we focus on the election of 1916 and explore the life, legacy, and relevance today of Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican Party nominee in 1916, who served two terms on the Supreme Court, the second time as Chief Justice, two terms as Republican Governor of New York, and Secretary of State in the Harding and Coolidge administrations.

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American History TV continues to reair C-SPAN's history series “The Contenders,” which features profiles of key figures who ran for president and lost, but changed political history.

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George McGovern died Sunday, October 21st, 2012, at the age of 90. In 1972, he ran for president as the Democratic Party nominee on an anti-Vietnam war platform and lost in a historic landslide to President Richard Nixon, garnering only 37.5% of the popular vote and even dropping his home-state of South Dakota.

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American History TV continues to reair C-SPAN's history series “The Contenders,” which features profiles of key figures who ran for president and lost, but changed political history.

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As the presidential campaign gets in full swing this fall, C-SPAN is premiering a new history series that puts electoral politics in a historical perspective.  The Contenders features profiles of key figures who have run for and lost the presidential election, but changed political history nevertheless.

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on James Garfield's life and career. Historians discussed Garfield's military service, his election as president and assassination shortly after his inauguration. Suzanne Miller, the site manager at Garfield's home in Mentor, Ohio, talked about several of the artifacts and documents that Garfield left behind. 

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C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles take American History TV on the road. Throughout the weekend of May 18-20 we feature the history of Columbia, South Carolina.

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